Auction wrap from around the grounds

DESPITE Christmas being just around, some 12,445 people still came out to see the real time price action in their suburbs and attended our auctions across Australia last week.

Queensland still gets the biggest crowds with 43 people on average over the last six months, followed by 34 people in South Australia and 33 people in the Northern Territory.

South Australia and NSW have the highest number of registered bidders on average with three bidders per auction. Of the properties that passed in last week, there was action on three quarters of them which is a good sign of activity.

We had 598 auctions booked from North Adelaide to Wahroonga with the top sale of the week so far according to our preliminary auction data at 8 Sarah Cres, Templestowe for $2.9M through sales agents Diana Dai and Ryan Faridi of Ray White Manningham in Victoria.

Fully renovated homes on big parcels of land prompted the hottest bidding duels at Melbourne’s weekend auctions. The four-bedroom house on 4682 square metres at 8 Sarah Crescent, Templestowe sold for $2.9 million at auction through Ray White, well up on the $2.5 million to $2.75 million quote.

Ms Dai said the buyers purchased the property for their adult son so they could be close to each other.

“They were attracted to the good location and it’s a beautiful family home."

Ray White sold a cottage at 41 Lambeth Avenue, Armadale, under solid competition for $1.3M.

Selling agent Matt White said the auction opened on an $800,000 bid, was on the market at $1.1 million with four bidders.

The auction with the highest number of registered bidders was at 23 Prospect Tce, Highgate Hill which Ray White South Brisbane owner Luke Croft sold for $1.89M with 20 registered bidders.

"It was a great auction of a very solid 80s style home that is ready to move into. There was a lot of bidders, many of them were active and it was a great result after a textbook auction campaign," Mr Croft said.

Many agents at other groups appear to be abandoning auctions in favour of private treaty but our agent Blaz Dejanovic of Ray White Wetherill Park | Cecil Hills still swears by them.

“I tend to do auctions because no matter what price you put up there on the internet, buyers are still looking for a bargain — they come in 10 per cent lower,” he said.

“And then they go home, watch the news and see house prices dropping to 2020 and they procrastinate, so we try to get the best price when there’s urgency at an auction.”

He said even though there were 42 per cent fewer auctions this year than last and clearance rates have lowered, some homeowners are achieving higher than expected results.

He recently helped an Abbotsbury dentist and his wife sell their house at 16 Withers Pl for $1.85 million — under the hammer last Saturday.

“We’d heard a lot of bad stories about poor clearance rates and people not getting the price they wanted and buyers not able to get finance,” the seller said.

“We were really scared … but going to auction was the best move we ever made.”

They’d bought the home for $1,247,000 in 2009. The family is moving to be closer to Strathfield’s private schools.